The big city next door has a lovely old hotel that, through accident, luck, hard work, and lots of money, is still standing today after more than 100 years. I was a volunteer docent there, leading tours, for many years. But, never ever was I a guest at the hotel. That finally changed on a recent weekend when Hubby and I and another couple took advantage of an online deal and stayed a Saturday night at the Mission Inn Hotel.

Our deal came with a $25 voucher to use at any of the hotel restaurants and another voucher for two treats at Casey’s Cupcakes. We decided to eat at the hotel’s Bella Trattoria Italian restaurant. I had the Insalada Mista, in other words an entrée salad. It was delightful. It included mixed greens, strawberries, oranges, chicken, goat cheese and an orange vinaigrette that was very nice.

One friend had the Raviolini Capricciosi that included cheese ravioli in a spicy cream tomato sauce with pancetta and asparagus. She said was excellent and based on the way she made sure to get every last drop of sauce with her bread stick, I have to believe her. Hubby and the other friend had the ??. Hubby said, because it was in a bowl, all the sauce sank to the bottom and that made it hard to get a bite of pasta with sauce. Otherwise he said it was fine.

Our cupcakes from Casey’s were delightful as well. While I can’t say they were the absolute best cupcakes I have had in my life, they were quite good, were decorated beautifully, and came in interesting flavors. Hubby had an apple pie cupcake. It smelled divine and he said it had apple pie filling in the middle. It made my lover of apple pie very happy. I had a peanut butter cup cupcake and it was tasty as well, but did not happen to have filling.

Our room was very nice. The king sized bed was comfy. Because of the hotel’s age and the way it was built-in sections over the years, very few rooms at the hotel look like any other room. That gives them some interesting angles and quirks and decor. If you are expecting a cookie cutter room, this is not the place for you. But if you appreciate a sense of history and don’t mind the occasional quirk that comes with a historic building (like the light switch in the bathroom not being quite where you think it should be) then you will love the Mission Inn.

The best part of straying there was being able to have full run of this fascinating building. Back in the day I went on a basement to tower tour when I worked for the city’s historic preservation officer. Then there were all those tours I gave over the years as a docent. And yet I STILL saw things I had never seen before. Besides, going up and down stairs and through corridors was a good way to work off a few of those cupcake calories! Here are some photos we took. The first four are stained glass windows, the rest just various things we saw or views from the top floor.